A prince of power.

MIRA.

I should inform thee further. Lend thy hand, And pluck my magic garment from me.-So; [Lays down his robe. Lie there, my art.-Wipe thou thine eyes; have comfort.

The direful spectacle of the wreck, which touch'd The very virtue of compassion in thee,

I have with such provision in mine art

So safely order'd, that there is no soul—"
No, not so much perdition as an hair,
Betid to any creature in the vessel

Which thou heard'st cry, which thou saw'st sink.
Sit down;

For thou must now know further.

MIRA. PRO. By what? by any other house or person? Of anything the image, tell me, that Hath kept with thy remembrance.

MIRA.

"Tis far off, And rather like a dream than an assurance That my remembrance warrants. Had I not Four or five women once that tended me?

PRO. Thou hadst, and more, Miranda. But
how is it

That this lives in thy mind? What see'st thou else
In the dark backward and abysm of time?
If thou remember'st aught ere thou cam'st here,
How thou cam'st here thou mayst.

MIRA.
But that I do not.
PRO. Twelve year since, Miranda, twelve year
since,

Theobald, "that there is no foyle;" and Johnson, "that there is no soil." We believe, notwithstanding Steevens' remark that "such interruptions are not uncommon to Shakspeare," that "soul" is a typographical error, and that the author wrote, as Capell reads,— that there is no loss,

No, not so much perdition as an hair
Betid to any creature," &c.

b You have often, &c.] Query, "You have oft," &c.

Sir, are not you my father? PRO. Thy mother was a piece of virtue, and She said thou wast my daughter; and thy father Was duke of Milan; and his only heir

d

A princess, no worse issued.

I

PRO. My brother, and thy uncle, call'd An

tonio,

pray thee, mark me,-that a brother should Be so perfidious!-he whom, next thyself,

Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put
The manage of my state; as, at that time,
Through all the signiories it was the first,-
And Prospero the prime duke;-being so reputed
In dignity, and for the liberal arts

Without a parallel: those being all my study,
The government I cast upon my brother,
And to my state grew stranger, being transported
And rapt in secret studies. Thy false uncle-
Dost thou attend me?

PRO. Being once perfected how to grant suits, How to deny them, who to advance, and who To trash for over-topping,-new created The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd 'em, Or else new form'd 'em; having both the key Of officer and office, set all hearts i' the state To what tune pleas'd his ear; that now he was The ivy which had hid my princely trunk, And suck'd my verdure out on 't.-Thou attend'st

Like a good parent, did beget of him
A falsehood, in its contrary as great
As my trust was; which had indeed no limit,
A confidence sans bound. He being thus lorded,
Not only with what my revenue yielded,
But what my power might else exact,-like one
Who having unto truth, by telling of it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own lie," he did believe

He was indeed the duke; out o' the substitution,
And executing the outward face of royalty,
With all prerogative:-hence his ambition grow-
ing,-

Dost thou hear?

MIRA. Your tale, sir, would cure deafness. PRO. To have no screen between this part he play'd

And him he play'd it for, he needs will be
Absolute Milan. Me, poor man! my library
Was dukedom large enough; of temporal royalties
He thinks me now incapable; confederates
(So dry he was for sway) with the king of
Naples,

To give him annual tribute, do him homage;
Subject his coronet to his crown, and bend
The dukedom, yet unbow'd,-alas, poor Milan !—
To most ignoble stooping.

PRO.

Now the condition. This king of Naples, being an enemy To me inveterate, hearkens my brother's suit; Which was, that he, in lieu o' the premises Of homage, and I know not how much tribute, Should presently extirpate me and mine Out of the dukedom, and confer fair Milan, With all the honours, on my brother: whereon, A treacherous army levied, one midnight Fated to the purpose, did Antonio open The gates of Milan; and, i' the dead of darkness, The ministers for the purpose hurried thence Me, and thy crying self.. MIRA.

So dear the love my people bore me,-nor set
A mark so bloody on the business; but
With colours fairer painted their foul ends.
In few, they hurried us aboard a bark,
Bore us some leagues to sea; where they prepar'd
A rotten carcass of a boat,* not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
Instinctively have quit it: there they hoist us,
To cry to the sea that roar'd to us; to sigh
To the winds, whose pity, sighing back again,
Did us but loving wrong.

MIRA. Was I then to you?

PRO.

Thou wast that did

smile,

Alack, what trouble

O, a cherubin preserve me! Thou didst

Infused with a fortitude from heaven,

When I have deck'd the sea with drops full salt; Under my burthen groan'd; which rais'd in me An undergoing stomach, to bear up

Against what should ensue.

Alack, for pity!

(*) Old text, Butt.

and this emendation is entitled to more respect than it has received.

b In lieu-] In lieu means here, in guerdon, or consideration; not as it usually signifies, instead, or in place.

e Fated to the purpose,-] Mr. Collier's annotator reads,― "Fated to the practice;" and as "purpose" is repeated two lines below, the substitution is an improvement.

d In few,-] To be brief; in a few words.

e Deck'd-1 Decked, if not a corruption for degged, an old provincialism, probably meant the same, that is, sprinkled.

PRO. [Aside to ARIEL, above.] Now I arise:Sit still, and hear the last of our sea-sorrow. Here in this island we arriv'd; and here Have I, thy schoolmaster, made thee more profit Than other princess' can, that have more time For vainer hours, and tutors not so careful.

MIRA. Heavens thank you for't! And now, I pray you, sir,

For still 'tis beating in my mind,-your reason For raising this sea-storm?

PRO. Know thus far forth. By accident most strange, bountiful FortuneNow my dear lady-hath mine enemies Brought to this shore; and by my prescience I find my zenith doth depend upon A most auspicious star, whose influence If now I court not, but omit, my fortunes Will ever after droop.-Here cease more questions:

Thou art inclin'd to sleep; 't is a good dulness, And give it way;-I know thou canst not choose.[MIRANDA sleeps. Come away, servant, come! I am ready now: Approach, my Ariel; come!

a Now I arise:-] The purport of these words has never been satisfactorily explained, because they have been always understood as addressed to Miranda. If we suppose them directed not to her, but aside to Ariel, who has entered, invisible except to Prospero, after having

'Perform'd to point the tempest,'

and whose arrival occasions Prospero to operate his sleepy charm

Enter ARIEL.(2)

ARI. All hail, great master! grave sir, hail!
I come

To answer thy best pleasure; be't to fly,
To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride
On the curl'd clouds,-to thy strong bidding, task
Ariel, and all his quality.

PRO.
Hast thou, spirit,
Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee?
ARI. To every article.

I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement: sometime I'd divide
And burn in many places; on the topmast,
The yards, and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly,"
Then meet, and join.(3) Jove's lightnings,† the

PRO.

My brave spirit! Who was so firm, so constant, that this coil Would not infect his reason?

ARI. Not a soul But felt a fever of the mad, and play'd Some tricks of desperation. All, but mariners, Plung'd in the foaming brine, and quit the vessel, Then all a-fire with me: the king's son, Ferdinand, With hair up-staring, then like reeds, not hair,Was the first man that leap'd; cried, Hell is empty, And all the devils are here. PRO. But was not this nigh shore? ARI. Close by, my master. PRO. But are they, Ariel, safe? ARI.

Why, that's my spirit!

Not a hair perish'd; On their sustaining garments not a blemish, But fresher than before: and, as thou bad'st me, In troops I have dispers'd them 'bout the isle. The king's son have I landed by himself; Whom I left cooling of the air with sighs,

a And are upon the Mediterranean flote,-] Mr. Collier's anno tator suggests, "And all upon," &c.; but what is gained by the alteration we cannot discern. Flote is here used substantively for flood or wave, as in the following from Middleton and Rowley's

Is the king's ship; in the deep nook, where once
Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew
From the still-vex'd Bermoothes, (4) there she's hid:
The mariners all under hatches stow'd;
Whom, with a charm join'd to their suffer'd labour,
I have left asleep and for the rest o' the fleet,
Which I dispers'd, they all have met again,
And are upon the Mediterranean flote,
Bound sadly home for Naples,

Supposing that they saw the king's ship wreck'd,
And his great person perish.

PRO.
Ariel, thy charge
Exactly is perform'd; but there's more work.
What is the time o' the day?
ARI.

Past the mid seasor.,

play of "The Spanish Gipsie," Act I. Sc. 5,it did not More check my rash attempt, than draw to ebb The float of those desires."

a At least two glasses-the time, 'twixt six and nowMust by us both be spent most preciously.]

By the customary punctuation of this passage, Prospero is made to ask a question and answer it. The pointing we adopt obviates this inconsistency, and renders any change in the distribution of the speeches needless.

b Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, serv'd-] The second thee, which overloads the line, was probably repeated by the compositor through inadvertence.

Argier.] The old English name for Algiers.

To do me business in the veins o' the earth
When it is bak'd with frost.

ARI.
I do not, sir.
PRO. Thou liest, malignant thing! Hast thou
forgot

The foul witch Sycorax, who, with age and envy,
Was grown into a hoop? hast thou forgot her?

ARI. No, sir.

PRO. Thou hast. Where was she born? speak; tell me.

ARI. Sir, in Argier.

PRO.
O, was she so? I must
Once in a month recount what thou hast been,
Which thou forgett'st. This damn'd witch
Sycorax,

For mischiefs manifold, and sorceries terrible
To enter human hearing, from Argier,
Thou know'st, was banish'd: for one thing she did
They would not take her life. Is not this true?
ARI. Ay, sir.

PRO. This blue-ey'd hag was hither brought

with child,d

And here was left by the sailors: Thou, my slave, As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant;